The tale of the Times Square would-be terrorist continues....
A few thoughts:
1. The ONLY reason that the wanna-be underwear bomber and Time Square bomber failed was because of vigilant civilians and some dumb luck.
Not because of any federal government anti-terrorist (excuse me, man-caused disaster) work.
Basically, the no-fly list failed again. Despite the claims of Secretary Napolitano that the newest no-fly rules enacted by the Obama Administration helped capture this terrorist
(see: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100504/NATION/5040408/1361/Napolitano--New-security-measures-helped-to-capture-Times-Square-bomb-suspect )-- reality shows that the no-fly list did not help in the least.
Despite the history of this terrorist being on a "watch" list for his multiple trips to Pakistan and for bringing over $80,000 into the US, he was not stopped or questioned even though he bought a one-way ticket with cash only minutes before take-off.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20004263-10391695.html
He was placed on the "no-fly" list; however, Emirates Air states that the "no-fly" had not been updated at the time the would-be bomber made his plane reservation (it takes about 12 hours for the list to be updated so that no-fly names automatically show up on airline computers). US authorities blame the airline for not checking manually for the emails that they sent out to all airlines--but my question is, why didn't someone just telephone the airlines? Apparently, someone decided to trust only in emails to get the "no-fly" message out: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100506/ap_on_bi_ge/us_no_fly_airlines/
Emails aren't a great way to communicate emergency messages, IMHO.
2. The federal government and President Obama are not performing one of their primary duties: to protect America from its enemies.
First of all, officials don't seem to be taking this seriously. Secretary Napolitano initially dismissed the possibility of a terrorist, stating that this was the work of a single individual http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/05/napolitano-on-ny-bomb-no-evidence-anything-other-than-a-oneoff.html
And Attorney General Holder was "never in any fear that we were in any danger of losing him"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100504/ap_on_go_ot/us_times_square_probe
And President Obama is freezing funds on a program designed to keep terrorists from obtaining US visas:
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/65333
And his Administration is continuing to bypass the House Intelligence Committee on terrorist attacks, which is part of their responsibility:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/GOP-lawmakers-Obama-is-stonewalling-on-terror-cases-92983514.html#ixzz0nBzrBvWV
Secondly, applying "band-aid" solutions after-the-fact does not help. Homeland Security needs to be pro-active against terrorist activity. We are under attack--ignoring this reality isn't the way to keep America safe.
For more information:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2010-05-07-editorial07_ST1_N.htm
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